新澳门六合彩内幕信息

新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Historian Chronicles Robert Arneson鈥檚 Anti-Nuke Art for New York Exhibition

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Arneson head
One of the pieces that illustrates Olmsted's essay is Robert Arneson's "Nuclear War Head #1," 1983 oil stick and acrylic on paper, 43 x 53 inches, RAd 103. Courtesy the Estate of Robert Arneson, © 2019. Licensed by VAGA/ARS, New York. Image courtesy George Adams Gallery, New York.

Historian Kathryn Olmsted was a graduate student at University of California, Davis, when the Robert Arneson's  Egghead Series of sculptures began being installed throughout campus. That was the first she had heard of the first-generation art faculty known for his clay works and who is often dubbed the father of the California Funk movement.

students and egghead
Graduating students take a selfie photo in front of an "Eye on Mrak" Egghead on campus. (Gregory Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

But a few months ago, she learned much more about the artist鈥檚 story than the iconic white heads that show up in so many 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis graduation photos.

Olmsted, who has been a history professor at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis since 2001, has written an essay in a newly published for New York鈥檚 George Adams Gallery exhibition of Arneson鈥檚 work. is on view at the Manhattan gallery through Oct. 26. Like many people, she had never known of his war works, which were completed at a time when he and his wife, Sandra Shannonhouse, who wrote the introduction to the catalog, became politically active in their hometown of Benicia. That鈥檚 the town where Arneson 鈥 one of the original 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis art faculty who taught at the university from the 1960s to the 1990s 鈥 grew up. It is also where in later life he became actively concerned about national and international proliferation of nuclear weapons.

In Conversation: Sandra Shannonhouse

Sandra Shannonhouse, Robert Arneson's widow, will join with Manetti Shrem Museum of Art Founding Director Rachel Teagle to discuss the centerpiece of the museum's Landscape Without Boundaries exhibition, "The Palace at 9 a.m."

Where: Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis

When: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2:30 p.m.

More on exhibitions here.

Arneson, true to form, took his political feelings and activism to his clay, paint and paper, creating what is often painful, crushing commentary on the 1980s arms race.

Shannonhouse, who is also a 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis art alumna, writes in her introduction to the exhibition catalog that in 1981 her husband was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission to create a portrait of assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. The sculpture he created was strongly objected to by then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein and others. (See video link below). The negative response resulted in Arneson's work receiving much publicity 鈥 he was a villain to some and a hero to others 鈥 and he earned broader recognition of his work than before, wrote Shannonhouse.

Ronald Reagan was elected president, the arms race had also exacerbated, and times were tumultuous. 鈥淚t was during this fraught period that Bob was approached by a student activist suggesting that 鈥渉e should address the issue of nuclear war through his art,鈥 Shannonhouse wrote.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know much about him, and what he did toward the end of his life,鈥 said Olmsted, who visited with the Arneson family at the Arneson archives in Benicia to research the essay.

 鈥淗e created art about a bleak subject 鈥 nuclear war 鈥  and that really was a bold move on his part.鈥 鈥 Kathryn Olmsted

A history with art

This was not the first time Olmsted has written about art. In 2018, she wrote for a New York Metropolitan Museum of Art on a show called . She also engaged in a panel discussion on that exhibition.

Olmsted
Kathryn Olmsted, shown with catalog, wrote an essay for an Arneson exhibition catalog in New York. (Gregory Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

That was very much in line with her research, as she is known in media, political and academic circles as a historian who specializes in conspiracy theories, particularly those that are anti-government. She has written and commentaries on conspiracies throughout history.

George Adams knew of the Metropolitan Museum work, and her 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis connections, and asked her to write the essay. David Kiehl, curator emeritus of prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art, wrote more about the exhibition in the catalog.

A 鈥楴uclear War Head鈥 and other in-the-face art

Her essay, titled, 鈥樷淲e鈥檙e in Serious Trouble Now,鈥: Robert Arneson鈥檚 Anti-Nuclear Politics,鈥 follows immediately after Shannonhouse鈥檚 introduction and is illustrated with, among other pieces, Arneson鈥檚 in-the-face acrylic painting, 鈥淣uclear War Head #1,鈥 which depicts a seemingly partly decomposed, disfigured, burning or burnt head lying horizontally.

Arneson Exhibition
Installation views of  Robert Arneson, The Anti-War Works: 1982-1986 George Adams Gallery, New York, 2019. Images courtesy George Adams Gallery, New York.  
Arenson Exhibition
All artwork images courtesy the Estate of Robert Arneson, 漏 2019. Licensed by VAGA/ARS, New York.  

About the place and time Arneson created this art, Olmsted wrote: 鈥淎ll around him, Robert Arneson could see his fellow Californians working to force government officials to stop the arms race. He shared their outrage and chose to express it through his art.鈥

All along, Arneson was suffering from the cancer that eventually killed him in 1992.

A timeline of art, pain

The illustrated timeline that accompanies Olmsted鈥檚 essay poignantly describes surgeries and hospital visits intermingled with art exhibitions and political events that fed his passion. In the 1982 section of the timeline, 鈥淣uclear Freeze referendum passes as a ballot measure in California鈥 is in the same section with, noted on Dec. 26, 鈥淎rneson undergoes surgery to treat further complications from cancer.鈥

On the same day Ronald Reagan was re-elected president in 1984, Arneson underwent 鈥渟urgery to rebuild bladder.鈥 

Olmsted concludes her essay discussing some of the concessions Reagan, and then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, made about the dangers of nuclear weapons:

鈥淩obert Arneson and other anti-nuclear activists and artists would continue to pressure Reagan and his successors to live up to the promises they made in response to the peace movement of the 1980s. In recent years, though, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both repudiated the that Reagan and Gorbachev signed."

鈥淧erhaps it is time to recommit to the principles that Arneson fought for in his art.鈥 鈥 Olmsted in her essay

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